It
is a tradition, this extravagant inauguration
of an American president. And however much we liberals enjoy finding reasons to
scold (The war! The tsunami!), George Bush is not the first president to hold a
bunch of glitzy do’s during times of great stress and tragedy.
So go ahead, if you’re in the mood
to celebrate this week: Celebrate. Some of us will look for other things to
think about, because war or no war, tsunami or no tsunami, we wanted somebody
besides Bush taking the oath of office on January 20.
But while you’re enjoying the party,
think. The president has declared the
festivities to be a time of “Celebrating Freedom and Honoring Service.” So
think about all the young men and women protecting that freedom and providing
that service in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are not the sons and daughters of
the wealthy. On the whole, they are the children of Middle America, put in
harm’s way by a president with a tragically flawed policy, and tragically
flawed planning and preparation.
In the weeks leading up to the
inauguration, some columnists and citizens have criticized the inaugural
extravagance. Others find it perfectly acceptable. It’s paid for by private
donors, not taxpayers, these Bush supporters say, and if those donors want to
throw an expensive party, that’s their business. It’s not fair, they say, to
suggest halting the fun in Washington. Are the Bush critics giving up
vacations, or movies, or personal entertaining?
Still, it is disconcerting to hear,
on National Public Radio, a report on the little “side” extravagances of the inauguration:
hotel-room packages going for $10K a night, for instance.
Well, appropriate or not, the movers
and shakers with whom the Bush administration is friendly, and those hoping for
that friendship, are in Washington this week, celebrating — many of them
extravagantly.
“It’s as
American as apple pie,” a spokesperson for Ritz-Carlton (which contributed $250,000 to
the celebration) told National Public Radio. The inauguration is “a
seen-and-be-seen event,” she said, a way to curry favor and court influence.
That kind of flip talk hasn’t
generated protest from the working stiffs in the Red states. Maybe they just
figure Bush deserves all this, that if they’d achieved what he has, they’d
deserve a lavish celebration, too. Maybe they really believe that he’s one of
them, and that the inauguration is a celebration of theirvalues as well as his.
But they’re not going to the ball.
Bush and his friends are. And contributions for the big event have come almost
exclusively from the corporate elite: energy and pharmaceutical companies, Wall
Street investment companies, big hotel chains, big media companies (including
Time Warner), wealthy Republicans from across the country. (Rochester developer
David Flaum contributed $100K.)
That’s who George Bush represents.
That’s who he’s “one of.” This is pay for play. Bush has cut taxes for the rich
and intends to do it again. His Social Security privatization will benefit the
investment firms who are throwing the parties for him, not working people, and
certainly not our children and grandchildren. “Tort reform” will punish average
people of average means who have been injured, suffered pain, and lost
livelihood, some for the rest of their lives.
Presidential inaugurations are
events of great pomp and joy and festivity. They also carry great symbolism.
This inauguration, with its fireworks and parties and parade, is no different.
And while the nation Celebrates Freedom and Honors Service this week, some of
us will be mourning the direction the country has taken. This inauguration,
like the presidential administration at its center, feels awfully removed from
reality.
Speaking
of reality
What
on earth was the Bob King saga all about? It was no surprise in October when
King — already making $150,000 a year as SUNY chancellor and getting a
$90,000 housing allowance — asked for a hefty raise. Abhorrent, maybe, but
not surprising. The surprise is that the request was turned down.
It also wasn’t surprising when King
asked for a six-month leave last week, with full pay — to start immediately
— and expected the SUNY trustees to approve it the same week. That’s just how
lots of out-of-touch, high-level officials think these days.
But three days later, King withdrew
the request, just as the trustees were getting to vote. This is too critical a
time in the SUNY system, he said, for him to be gone.
The guy in charge of the SUNY system
discovers that little inconvenience a couple of days after he asks for time off with pay?
King insisted that public criticism
didn’t have a thing to do with his about-face. It did, though, seem a little
callous to be asking for a leave-with-full-pay when he was pushing for a
tuition hike for his students, and critics rushed to point that out.
This is not the Bob King we knew
when he was Monroe County executive. You saw the arrogance, but not the
bald-faced stupidity, so you just knew there
was something else going on.
On Friday, the New York Times laid out what it said was the real story. Some SUNY
trustees, the Times said, don’t like
King and wanted to get rid of him, so they worked a deal with King and the
governor. King would request, and get, a fully paid leave — and then just
wouldn’t come back.
But King, said the Times, got miffed after some Pataki
aides and Democratic legislators publicly criticized the leave request.
Maybe that’s all of the story. Maybe
not. One thing’s for sure: It’s time for a lot of people in Albany to start
getting acquainted with average New Yorkers.
This article appears in Jan 19-25, 2005.
